Sycamores to Ashes, Ashes to Sycamores..

the bible is fascinating on so many levels, my guy

multi dimensional time capsule

and morality teacher

part of the gifts from before

when i was like 10-12 yr old at my mawmaws id always look in her bible mainly because of the art in it, 3 headed beast coming out of the ocean onto a beach eating people. i remember thinking that i hope thatd never happen. knowing now thats not realistic, i still wonder how the metaphor manifests

is the beach a border between land and sea? seems like it

yes!

an interesting tree!

it, itself, I symbol of a crossing point between the spiritual and physical

the tree in question grew solitary on a border wall

--in a form of synchromysticism, google has a computer named sycamore

which I have mentioned before

good eye, GM

Enki (Sea goat) with serpent spitting 3 orbs. The 3 blue stones (apples) that open gateways, and swallows them whole. To bring them somewhere else.

https://imgur.com/a/y9TAFkg

Remember


The Egyptians say that the divine right of kings was taught how to restore order and balance and avert chaos. And by uniting upper and lower Egypt and restoring Ma'at, threat of crisis averted. It was tied by lotus plants on the windpipe.

Note there is two and their synergy creates om or aum which goes back to upper and lower egypt, two. It is the baseline which creates the synergy of focal points(material) and dead space/void(nonmaterial)


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The etymological origins of Om are unclear. Some scholars consider Om to have been variously held as the "cosmic sound" or "mystical syllable" in ancient India, or simply as "affirmation to something divine", or as symbolism for abstract spiritual concepts in the Upanishads.[11] It is found in most ancient layers of the Vedic texts such as the Rig Veda, dated to be from the 2nd millennium BCE.[4][11]

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The open mouth is pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, which is pronounced "a", while the closed one is uttering the last letter, which is pronounced "um", to represent the beginning and the end of all things.[2] Together they form the sound Aum, a syllable sacred in several religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

There are however exceptions to the rule in which both komainu have their mouth either open or closed.[3] The two forms are called collectively a-un[4] and individually as a-gy; ("a" shape?) and ''un-gy; (. "un" shape?).

The Parable of the Talents (also the Parable of the Minas) is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in two of the synoptic, canonical gospels of the New Testament: The version in Luke is also called the Parable of the Pounds.

In both Matthew and Luke, a master puts his servants in charge of his goods while he is away on a trip. Upon his return, the master assesses the stewardship of his servants. He evaluates them according to how faithful each was in making wise investments of his goods to obtain a profit. It is clear that the master sought some profit from the servants' oversight. A gain indicated faithfulness on the part of the servants. The master rewards his servants according to how each has handled his stewardship. He judges two servants as having been "faithful" and gives them a positive reward. To the single "unfaithful" servant, who played it safe, a negative compensation is given.

A talent (Ancient Greek talanton 'scale' and 'balance') was a unit of weight of approximately 80 pounds (36 kg), and when used as a unit of money, was valued for that weight of silver. As a unit of currency, a talent was worth about 6,000 denarii. A denarius was the usual payment for a day's labour. At one denarius per day, a single talent was therefore worth 16 years of labor.

Upon returning home, after a long absence, the master asks his three servants for an account of the talents he entrusted to them. The first and the second servants explain that they each put their talents to work, and have doubled the value.

The third servant, however, had merely hidden his talent, burying it in the ground, and was punished by his master:

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
— Matthew 25:24–30

In Luke's Gospel (Luke 19:12–27), Jesus told this parable because he was near Jerusalem and because his disciples thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. The objective of investing or trading during the absence of the master was intended to counter expectations of the immediate appearance of God's kingdom.

The parable of the minas is generally similar to the parable of the talents, but differences include the inclusion of the motif of a king obtaining a kingdom and the entrusting of ten servants with one mina each, rather than a number of talents (1 talent = 60 minas).

Only the business outcomes and consequential rewards of three of the servants' trading were related. Additionally, Luke included at the beginning an account of citizens sending a message after the nobleman to say that they did not want him as their ruler; and, at the end, Luke added that the nobleman instructed that his opponents should be brought to him and slain, as well as the unprofitable servant deprived of his mina.

The third servant in Matthew's version was condemned as wicked and lazy, because he should have deposited his talent with the bankers (Greek: trapezitais, literally, table or counter-keepers, just as bankers were originally those who sat at their bancum, or bench).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that this was "the very least the slave could have done, [as] to make money in this way required no personal exertion or intelligence", and Johann Bengel commented that the labour of digging a hole and burying the talent was greater than the labour involved in going to the bankers.

Traditionally, the parable of the talents has been seen as an exhortation to Jesus' disciples to use their God-given gifts in the service of God, and to take risks for the sake of the Kingdom of God. These gifts have been seen to include personal abilities ("talents" in the everyday sense), as well as personal wealth.

Failure to use one's gifts, the parable suggests, will result in negative judgment. From a psychological point of view, the failure is the immediate result of the failure of feeling God's love.

The first two servants are able to see God in a positive perception, as understanding, generous, and kind, while the third servant sees God as harsh, demanding, and critical.

The poet John Milton was fascinated by the parable (interpreted in this traditional sense), referring to it repeatedly, notably in the sonnet "When I Consider How My Light is Spent":

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent, which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he, returning, chide
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

While the narrator worries over his limited accomplishments, Patience reminds him that God does not need "man's work". Milton may even be contrasting God (as King) with the lord of the parable.
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